Sequenciação

Sequenciação refers to the process of determining the order of nucleotides in a DNA or RNA molecule, or the order of amino acids in a protein. This fundamental biological technique provides critical information about genes, genomes, and their functions. In molecular biology and genetics, DNA sequencing is used to identify genetic variations, understand evolutionary relationships, and diagnose diseases. RNA sequencing, or RNA-Seq, is used to study gene expression levels and identify novel RNA transcripts. Protein sequencing, though less common due to advancements in DNA sequencing, is used to determine the precise amino acid sequence of a protein, which is essential for understanding its structure and function.

The development of DNA sequencing technologies has revolutionized biological research. Early methods like the Sanger sequencing method were laborious but foundational. More recent high-throughput sequencing technologies, often referred to as next-generation sequencing (NGS), have dramatically increased the speed and reduced the cost of sequencing, enabling large-scale genomic projects. These technologies work by fragmenting the DNA, sequencing these fragments, and then computationally assembling them into the complete sequence. The data generated from sequencing experiments is vast and requires sophisticated bioinformatics tools for analysis and interpretation. Applications of sequencing span across medicine, agriculture, forensics, and evolutionary biology, making it a cornerstone of modern scientific inquiry.